BMW

BMW became one of the first companies using augmented reality to provide clients with the capability to explore the brand’s products in an innovative way. Through Tango, Google’s AR technology, customers could configure their future BMW i3 or i8 in a real-size visualization.

With this visualization, customers could interact with a three-dimensional image of a chosen car and virtually open car’s boot or doors as well as switch on its lights. Furthermore, users could virtually get inside the electric car to check out its interior.

Detalization capabilities of Tango allowed customers to feel like they saw the car in reality.

For instance, when the AR technology superimposed the car model in the real environment, it looked like the wheels were really on the ground rather than levitated in the air.

The quality of the images generated was so realistic that users could hardly distinguish the reality from the graphics. That’s why they often ducked down, in reality, to get virtually into the car as if the roof really could bang their heads on. This says a lot about the added value of BMW’s AR mobile app.

The AR solution provided customers with an interactive way to test the car’s design and feel like they had already become owners of that vehicle even if they didn’t have the amount of money required to purchase it. This is much more than just swiping numerous car photos.

In addition, users could choose car options without leaving the virtual car. For example, they could change interior or exterior colors at the touch of the screen.

Once the configuration is complete, the customers could save their choice and then easily share it with their friends via social networks.

De Beers

When it comes to buying jewelry online, customers often face the problem that they can’t be sure whether a particular item will fit them. What is good for one type of face or skin cannot be ideal for another.

Imagine that you can try on jewelry without even leaving your apartment. You no longer need to take all your dresses to a store to determine whether a particular item fits your cloth. You just take on your favorite dress right in your room and, with a click of a mouse, try on any item you want.

This is what exactly De Beers did for its Forevermark diamond brand. The company used the augmented reality technology to make all the mentioned above possible.

Using their computers, website visitors could virtually try on rings, necklaces, and bracelets to see how the jewelry looks in 3D. These items moved virtually in real-time naturally, when a user turned one’s head or hand.

With this AR solution, you could endlessly try on all store’s assortment without seller’s suspicious staring and the need for explaining anything to store security representatives.

Nevertheless, to use this AR feature, users had to perform several actions that currently may seem weird.

At first, they had to download and install specific brand’s software, print a sign of a chosen item, cut it accurately, activate this sign through a web camera, and then enjoy an AR experience.

However, today’s level of the AR technology development enables a business to have more user-friendly solutions. With an AR mobile app, users don’t need to print anything or even remain at home to virtually try on a product.

They can experience augmented reality at any time and any place once an AR app is launched.

Tissot

A watch is not just a tool that lets people keep track of time. In fact, this is an inherent part of the individual style. That’s why it can’t be purchased after checking a few images of a certain model. And Tissot, a famous Swiss watch brand, realizes it.

So it offered its website visitors to virtually try on any brand’s watch on Tissot’s website.

Their AR feature allowed customers to see how a certain watch model would look on the user’s hand in reality from different angles.

The company launched this augmented reality feature within its promotion campaign of one of its watch collection. They decided to let customers try on their products instead of telling their customers about how good their products are.

This AR feature on Tissot’s website also enabled users to change both colors and styles of chosen models in real-time on their computer using a web camera.

Besides watching how a certain model would look on their wrist, customers could experiment with built-in watch features like an altimeter, meteo, compass, or thermometer.

A small wow-feature of Tissot’s AR experience was that all 3D watch models showed the correct time on a screen.

Tissot managed to provide its consumers with an unforgettable online shopping experience improved by innovative technologies such as augmented reality.

Hugo Boss

Imagine you could watch a private fashion show where models would wear cloth you consider buying.

Hugo Boss decided to take the window-shopping experience to an incredible new level. They set the ‘Black Magic’ screens right in front of their store windows so that passengers on the street could experience their augmented reality installation.

Within brand’s promotional campaign, visitors could pick up special trigger cards to have a chance to play a virtual blackjack game to win up to £250 worth of Hugo Boss vouchers.

Colorful signboards, bright lights, and loud music no longer influence passengers as they used to. That’s why Hugo Boss came up with such a great idea to connect their personal approach to clients and innovative technologies.

With a goal to increase the number of store visitors and get more sales, the famous brand invented an extraordinary way to invite customers to its store.

The Black Magic installation included AR displays showing shoppers interactive footage of Hugo Boss catwalk shows once they apply for their trigger cards.

Dior

We all have ever seen a fashion show at least on TV. However, few people know how to attend such a show in real life. Moreover, it’s nearly impossible to get backstage during catwalk shows.

With this in mind, Dior became among first luxury companies using virtual reality to allow customers to be closer to their brand.

Dior came up with an idea of how to provide its fans and consumers with a capability to see what was going on the backstage during fashion shows without the need to attend them in reality.

The company developed Dior Eyes, a virtual reality head-mounted display (HMD) that allows the public to see how stylists, make-up artists, and models prepare for the show.

Using Dior Eyes, users can find themselves on the backstage in the role of a stranger no one cared about because they are too busy with the necessary preparations for the show.

With this HMD, users can closely approach make-up artists and literally check their work quality thanks to virtual reality technology. “Add more tone cream. Cool, enough. And a bit of mascara, please”.

With its VR headset, Dior strived to share insights about how the backstage magic happened during brand’s events.

The VR headset had Samsung Galaxy Note 4 as a display with the Samsung Gear VR as its core.

Dior Eyes provided the graphics with the 515 ppi pixel density nearly 100-degree field of view. The VR headset with the Dior logo has built-in headphones to ensure clear audio.

However, this HMD is not for sale. To visit virtually Dior’s fashion show backstage, people had to attend specific showrooms where they can try Dior Eyes.

Final Thoughts

At the early stages of the augmented and virtual reality development, luxury brands strived to be among first adopters of the innovative technologies.

They experimented with different approaches and achieved a widespread buzz about their implementations.

Over time, smaller companies across various industries started deploying these AR and VR technologies while copying luxury brands’ experience or even improving it. Though, the latter were luckier since they could implement more advanced technologies based on a being-user-friendly principle.

One way or another, both VR and AR add value to the typical shopping experience and allow customers to be closer to brands by getting insights about the company’s effort to service them.

With these technologies, customers can interact with products they can’t even touch in reality at the current moment.

Companies using VR and AR for driving a better customer experience can easily build up a core of the loyal and dedicated fans.